Ho’oponopono: powerful Hawaiian prayer

Have you heard of Ho’oponopono and the Hawaiian therapist Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len who cured an entire ward of criminally insane patients, without ever meeting any of them or spending a moment in the same room?
He just reviewed each of the patients’ files, and then he healed them by healing himself, following the 4 steps below.
The amazing results may seem too far fetched, but then astounding results have happened with this method.
But how can this possibly work?
How can you heal yourself and have it heal others? How can you even heal yourself?

Why would it affect anything “out there”?
The secret is there is no such thing as “out there” – everything happens to us in our mind. Everything we see, everything we hear, every person we meet, we experience in your mind.
We only think it’s “out there” so we think that absolves us of responsibility.
In fact it’s quite the opposite: we are responsible for everything we think, and everything that comes to our attention.
If we watch the news, everything we hear and see is our responsibility.
That sounds harsh, but it means that we are also able to clear it, clean it, and through forgiveness, change it.

Four Simple Steps
There are four simple steps to this method. Even the order is not so important:
Repentance
Forgiveness
Appreciation
Love
These are the only forces at work – but these forces have amazing power.
The best part of this version of Ho’oponopono is you can do it yourself; you don’t need anyone else to be there, you don’t need anyone to hear you.
You can “say” the words in your head. The power is in the feeling and in the everlasting willingness of the Universe/Source/Spirit/God/Goddess to forgive and love.

Step 1: Repentance – I’M SORRY
Here’s our challenge: to accept that we are responsible for everything that our mind has created, even if it seems to be “out there.”
Once we accept that, then it’s very natural to feel sorry.
If I hear of a natural disaster, I let myself feel remorse that something in my consciousness has created that idea.
I’m so very sorry that someone I know has a broken bone that I realize I have caused.
This realization can be painful, especially if we muddle ‘responsibility’ with ‘guilt’ which is a common confusion.
We will likely resist accepting responsibility for the “out there” kind of problems until we start to practice this method on our more obvious “in here” problems and see results.

So choose something that you already know you’ve caused directly for yourself.
Over-weight? Addicted to nicotine, alcohol or some other substance?
Do you have anger issues? Health problems?
Start there and say you’re sorry.
That’s the whole step: I’m sorry, although I think it is more powerful if you say it like this:
“I realize that I am responsible for the (issue) in my life and I feel terrible remorse that something in my consciousness has caused this.”

 Step 2: Ask Forgiveness – PLEASE FORGIVE ME
Don’t worry about who you’re asking. Just ask!
PLEASE FORGIVE ME.
Say it over and over. Mean it and just remember your remorse from step 1 as you ask to be forgiven.

Step 3: Appreciation – THANK YOU
Say “THANK YOU” – again it doesn’t really matter who or what you’re thanking.
Thank your body for all it does for you. Thank yourself for being the best you can be. Thank God. Thank the Universe. Thank whatever it was that just forgave you. Just keep saying THANK YOU.

Step 4: Love – I LOVE YOU
This can also be step 1. Say I LOVE YOU. Say it to your body, say it to God. Say I LOVE YOU to the air you breathe, to the house that shelters you. Say I LOVE YOU to your challenges. Say it over and over. Mean it. Feel it. There is nothing as powerful as Love.
That’s it, the whole practice in 4 steps. It’s really simple and amazingly effective.

(Thanks to Joe Vitale for the original article which I’ve amended)